Craigslist-related Tobyhanna Township murder case heading to trial

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poconorecord.com

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Posted Jan. 21, 2014 at 1:10 PM
Updated Jan 21, 2014 at 1:40 PM

Posted Jan. 21, 2014 at 1:10 PM
Updated Jan 21, 2014 at 1:40 PM

» Social News

William McRae, 23, of Long Pond, will head to Monroe County Court on charges of fatally shooting his partner after both men allegedly had used a Craigslist ad and a woman to lure and then rob a victim.

Pocono Pines Magisterial District Judge Richard Claypool after a Tuesday preliminary hearing found sufficient evidence to send the case to county court, where McRae can go to trial, plead guilty or plead no contest.

Emily Woodman, 20, of Pocono Summit, testified at Tuesday's hearing that McRae and Brandon Fraser, 20, of Long Pond, placed a Craigslist ad for an 18-year-old woman seeking cash in exchange for sex. Police said a 45-year-old Emerald Lake, Tobyhanna Township, man answered the ad and texted the poster back and forth for about a month.

Woodman said the victim met her the night of July 30 at Emerald Lake's Pine Tree Beach. She said she lured him to a spot where McRae and Fraser ambushed him.

Woodman said McRae tied the victim's hands behind his back and that Fraser beat him with a bat, after which both men took $100, his cellphone and his wallet containing his ATM cards. Police said McRae and Fraser made him give them his ATM PIN.

Police were contacted at 12:53 a.m. July 31 and met the victim, who had managed to make it back to his home with his hands still tied.

Woodman said McRae got angry when Fraser got careless in covering his tracks and telling other people about the robbery. She said McRae told her Fraser had to be “subtracted from the equation.”

Woodman said McRae on Aug. 5 had her drive him to a foreclosed home, where he got a rifle from the bushes alongside the house, and then to the Gap View Drive parking lot. She said McRae phoned Fraser to meet him there and then hid waiting in nearby woods.

Woodman said Fraser arrived, parked and got into his back seat, watching a movie on his portable TV player. She said McRae then came out of hiding, walked up to the back of Fraser's car and shot Fraser through the rear windshield, hitting him in the back of the head.

Woodman said McRae then took Fraser's cellphone and had her drive him back to the foreclosed house, where he wiped down and hid the rifle near the house. She said she then drove him to a Pocono Summit gas station, where they parted ways.